[See 15 December 2015 entry for Yee Yook Poy for background information.]
Immigration Inspector Thomas Thomas, District Director, Immigration Service, Cincinnati, Ohio had found the Yee San Company to be a bona fide mercantile establishment and he was impressed by the reputable and creditable witnesses. He recommended that Yee Yook Poy’s application be granted but in spite of this, Yee Yook Poy was denied admission and sent back to China. Why??
Yee Yook Poy’s file mentions several anonymous letters and cross reference’s Chin Hung’s file. The two young men arrived together in Seattle on 6 June 1927 and were deported 5 December 1827. Yoo Yook Poy’s alleged father was original admitted as a merchant [this was questioned in the testimony] and the father-son relationship was not established to the satisfaction to the Commissioner of Immigration. Chin Hung was the alleged son of Chin Woo, alleged merchant. The credibility of Cleo Barnes and Ben J. Miller as witnesses was in question because they were employees of Yee Jung Sam.
The file contains over 100 pages of pro and con testimony but the most damning information seems to be the controversy regarding the merchant status of Yee Yook Poy’s father and it mentions three anonymous letters. One signed letter written in Chinese was translated is included in the file.
It is not known how this letter affected the career of Immigration Inspector Thomas Thomas.
Other white witnesses were Charles E. Nixon, William W. Wheaton, Emmet Leist, A. L. Dunbar, B. H. Latham, Ensign Gadt, C. F. Croezinger, Mrs. John Frey, Louis Miller, Charles Davis, and Chinese witnesses, Yee San and Yee Jung Sam, all of Columbus, Ohio.Chin Hung and Chin Woo photos, 1927, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Chin Hung file, Seattle, Box 1019, Case 7060/17-28.Photos of Yee Jung Sam and Yee Yook Poy, Declaration of Non-Immigrant Alien 483, 1926, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, RG 85, National Archives-Seattle, Yee Yook Poy file, Seattle, Box 1019, Case 7060/17-19.